Like a Hurricane*

Neil Young (1978).

Just leaves and tree limbs here in Alexandria and no flooding downtown. Power outage about 2am and huge bursts of wind.

I know a response to a national disaster can be politicized like Hurricane Katrina. But how do you politicize a disaster that was unfolding? Little Ricky Cantor did just that days before we knew Hrricane Irene was going to touch down. Almost 600,000 in Cantor's neck of the woods yesterday lost their power and a few lost their lives. But Ricky wants there to be further cuts before FEMA can pay the states for damages. Twice his office confirmed this position. As it was, FEMA had to spend payments for rebuilding projects in Missouri to take care of the immediate needs of Hurricane Irene.

Ron Paul doubled down today on his view that we should eliminate FEMA because it's centralized planning. As Hurricane Irene bore down on Florida, Paul suggested that we should go back to the way it was from 1900 to 1950 when local communities recovered on their own. He cited that Galveston was in his district. Does anyone remember the devastating hurricanes that wiped out Galveston? FEMA is a direct result of government taking action on such disasters. Yes, some communities recovered but others were lost forever.

Believe it or not yesterday Republicans worried--yes, worried--that all the preparations for the hurricane taken in North Carolina and northwards would actually act as a stimulus on the economy. Not to be outdone by insensitivity, insurance companies announced as both North Carolina and Virginia were under assault that they would be raising home insurance rates this fall because of all the natural disasters.

On Republican websites there was also concern that President Obama might look good because he cut off his vacation--does that make it three in a row?--to return and go directly to the FEMA headquarters. They opined that the photos released with Homeland Security Head Napolitano and FEMA head Fugate were aimed at Obama's re-election campaign.

Others wanted a delay in emergency funding for the Northeast so Hurricane Irene would become Obama's Katrina.

No one seemed to care about the actual effects of Hurricane Irene. But I guess if everything is politics why be concerned--the devastated won't vote for you anyway.

I do have a bone to pick with the reporters on this whole affair. Not once in stories about Obama at the FEMA headquarters did the authors tell you where it was. 500C Steet for the record. They didn't even tell you it was in Washington,D.C. But they did tell you that the National Hurricane Center was in Miami.

As New York City is being blasted, kudos to Mayor Bloomberg, who took Irene seriously from the beginning and was heard giving instructions to citizens late into last night.

And for a final laugh, Dick Cheney in his new memoir says that George W. expressed his compassion for the people of New Orleans during the Katrina disaster.